The Mortal Instruments review

Director:
Harald Zwart
Cast:
Lily Collins
Jamie Campbell Bower
Kevin Zegers
Robert Sheehan
Rated: PG-13

One might notice similarities with other movies and books when viewing “The Mortal Instruments” as it tends to rip off more than a few things.

The film follows Clary (Collins), a teen who lives in New York City with her mother. One day, while hanging out with her friend Simon (Sheehan), she witnesses a murder, however, the being that was killed was actually a demon.

The murderer turns out to be a man named Jace (Bower) who hunts demons. It turns out that Clary has the same abilities as Jace does allowing her to hunt demons too. Upon learning this, Clary’s mother is kidnapped and she now has to rely on Jace and his team to track down the culprit and discover who she really is.

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The Butler review

Director:
Lee Daniels
Cast:
Forest Whitaker
David Oyelowo
Oprah Winfrey
Terrence Howard
Cuba Gooding Jr.
Rated: PG-13

This is one of those films where you have to know the difference between “based on” and “inspired by.”

“Lee Daniels’ The Butler,” follows the story of Cecil Gaines (Whitaker), who began his life working in a cotton field as a child. After seeing his father get killed, Cecil grows up learning how to be a server inside a house. Eventually, Cecil makes his way to the Washington D.C. and over time finds himself working as a butler in an upscale hotel.

His skills allow him to be noticed by a supervisor at the White House and he begins working there soon after. Cecil ends up working under multiple presidents while serving as a butler at the White House and is able to observe major moments of how the administrations dealt with civil rights issues. Meanwhile, the job puts a bit of a strain at times on his marriage with his wife Gloria (Winfrey), as well as his son, Louis (Oyelowo), who becomes involved with multiple civil rights movements through the film.

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Kick-Ass 2 review

Looks like Kick-Ass 2 caught a severe case of “sequelitis.”

“Kick-Ass 2” follows the title character super hero who, under the mask, is high school student Dave Lizewski (Taylor-Johnson). The film picks up two years after the first movie where Dave decided to give up being Kick-Ass. However, as time goes on he hears the calling to return to crime fighting.

To improve his skills, he seeks the help of Mindy Macready (Moretz), who goes by her alter-ego Hit-Girl. Mindy helps train Dave for a while, however, circumstances force her to give up crime fighting. In order to continue patrolling the streets, Dave joins a group of amateur super heroes led by a man named Colonel Stars and Stripes (Carrey).

Trouble starts brewing though as the villain’s son from the first film, Chris (Mintz-Plasse), decides to seek revenge by building an evil army.

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Planes review

Director:
Klay Hall
Cast:
Dane Cook
Stacy Keach
John Cleese
Carlos Alazarqui
Roger Craig Smith
Rated: PG

You can probably tell the quality of “Planes” when you see that Sinbad is in the cast.

“Planes” follows the story of Dusty Crophopper (Cook), a crop-duster from a rural area who is tired of living the every day life of working on the farm fields. The movie is set in the world of “Cars” so every being in the film is a machine. Crophopper’s number one goal is to race in a giant world grand prix for planes.

He eventually gets his chance after going through a trial run qualifier. From there he enters the worldwide race after being trained by an old war plane named Skipper (Keach). During the race he ends up meeting a group of different characters from all over the planet.

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We’re the Millers review

Director:
Rawson Marshall Thurber
Cast:
Jason Sudeikis
Jennifer Aniston
Will Poulter
Emma Roberts
Ed Helms
Nick Offerman
Kathryn Hahn
Rated: R

The Millers have a long way to go before being on the level of the Griswolds.

David Clark (Sudeikis) is a pot dealer who is living in an average apartment and going day to day without any real plan. One evening when returning home, David gets into a series of events that ends up with him getting robbed. Because of this, he has to meet with drug kingpin Brad (Helms) who he owes money to.

Brad offers David a way out and to make some money on the side, by smuggling some marijuana across the Mexican border. David agrees and to do so comes up with the plan to hire three others to act as a happy family on vacation. He ends up recruiting a stripper named Rose (Aniston), an awkward teen named Kenny (Poulter) and a runaway named Casey (Roberts).

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The Way Way Back review

Directors:
Nat Faxon
Jim Rash
Cast:
Steve Carell
Toni Collette
Sam Rockwell
Liam James
AnnaSophia Robb
Rated: PG-13

Ah, the good ole’ coming of age genre.

“The Way Way Back” follows 14-year-old Duncan (James), a socially awkward teen who is on a summer vacation trip with his mother Pam (Toni Collette) and Pam’s boyfriend Trent (Carell). Duncan doesn’t exactly get along with Trent very well and keeps to himself for much of the start to his summer at a beach house.

The mundane nature of Duncan’s summer comes to a screeching hult, though, when he meets Owen (Rockwell), a man who works at the local water park. Owen is a carefree, fun loving person working with a staff who invites Duncan to get a job at the Water Park as well. Duncan starts working there and it becomes an escape from his less than stellar life at the beach house.

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Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters review

Director:
Thor Fruedenthal
Cast:
Logan Lerman
Alexandra Daddario
Brandon T. Jackson
Leven Rambin
Jake Abel
Rated: PG

Finally, the sequel that nobody was asking for.

The second “Percy Jackson” installment picks up some time after the events of “The Lightning Thief.” Percy Jackson (Lerman), son of Poseidon, is training in a special camp for demigods, which is sort of like a lame version of Xavier’s School for the Gifted from X-Men. Trouble starts coming up when enemy demigod Luke (Abel) gets involved with a plot to destroy the barrier around the camp and reawaken the ancient evil.

To stop the ancient evil, and save the camp, Percy has to go on a quest to find the Golden Fleece. He is once again joined by love interest Annabeth (Daddario) and comic relief character Grover (Jackson) to go on the mission. A new addition to the team is Tyson (Smith), Percy’s half brother who happens to be a cyclops and offers a bit more comic relief.

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Elysium review

Director Neill Blomkamp’s second sci-fi feature venture follows the story of Max, played by Matt Damon, who is out of jail for car theft and is trying to live a normal life in the year 2154. By this point, most of Earth has become one giant slum, for example the setting of the movie is a post apocalyptic looking Los Angeles, however, the very richest members of society decided to build a space station where they could live in luxury called Elysium.

One day while at his factory job, Max gets into an accident and is exposed to extreme radiation that gives him cancer. Having no other options left to rid himself of it, Max decides to go to Elysium where they have pods that can heal just about anything. To do so, Max meets with an underground group that are trying to make it to Elysium as well and Max volunteers to take on a dangerous mission that will take him where he needs to go.

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2 Guns review

Director:
Baltasar Kormakur
Cast: R
Denzel Washington
Mark Wahlberg
Paula Patton
Bill Paxton
Rated:

Denzel Washington sure did make a nicer partner to work with here than in “Training Day.”

Director Baltasar Kormakur’s new film “2 Guns” follows a pair of men, Bobby (Washinton) and Stig (Wahlberg), who appear at first glance to be criminals. The two decide to rob a bank and after they do, it’s discovered that both aren’t who they said they were.

Bobby turns out to be a DEA agent and Stig happens to be a naval intelligence officer. To make matters worse, they find out that the money they stole, both doing so as part of their own investigations, turns out to belong to crooked members of the CIA. The lead CIA agent, Earl (Paxton) is now after the both of them, as well as other forces out to get the money they took.

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The Wolverine review

The latest film belonging to the “X-Men” franchise takes place a few years after the end of “Last Stand.” Logan, played by Hugh Jackman, known as Wolverine, is now living on his own in the wilderness. He is haunted by nightmares on a constant basis and can’t seem to escape his demons. One night, when he makes his way into a town, he meets a woman named Yukio, played by Rila Fukushima, who arrived to summon Logan to Japan to meet with her employer, Yashida.

Yashida, played by Hal Yamanouchi, is an old acquaintance of Logan, the two having met in World War II. Yashida wants to meet with Logan not only to thank him for saving his life during the war, but to also offer him an opportunity to get rid of his healing ability. As Logan ponders the proposition, he starts to learn there is more going on behind the scenes of Yashida and his family than what was first let on.

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